Sleep Deprivation: Being a New Mom

Before I gave birth to Ginny, I struggled with sleep like many women in the last trimester do.  On top of that, I was fatigued.  It was not the best feeling---wanting sleep and not getting it.  People would tell me that it was God's way of preparing mothers.  My response was that if God was trying to prepare us for motherhood then He should give us as much sleep as possible before the baby is born.

To this day, I think my assessment is correct.  The sleep deprivation of the 3rd trimester is entirely different than that of being a new mom.  When I was in that last couple of months, I knew that I would be going without sleep once the baby arrived.  I was not wrong.  I will say this, though.  The sleep deprivation of a new mom usually comes without the additional fatigue.  At least, now, I feel like I do get rest when I sleep, as opposed to when I was pregnant.

Ginny will be 6 months old in a couple of days.  She is still not sleeping the night through.  We have gone from being up every hour or two to sleeping in 5-6 hour chunks. That means that I have now been sleep deprived for 6 months.  Actually more if you include my last 2 months of pregnancy.  Quite frankly, I'm getting tired of being tired.  It is so bad that now I am grateful for getting 6 hours of sleep in a row.  My ultimate fantasy now is to get 10 hours of sleep....just once.  8 hours of sleep in a row will suffice and make me very happy. Someday....right?

Homemade Baby Food

I have officially become one of "those" moms.  You know the ones...the ones who don't want to do what all the other moms have been doing for decades.  My first "rebellion" was to reject disposable diapers and go with cloth (which I LOVE).  Now, I'm going even further by making Ginny's baby food.

When I first envisioned having a baby, I thought I would be like most and buy Gerber's at the grocery store.  My mom did that as well as my sister.  It was my sister-in-law who brought up making baby food for Ginny.  This surprised me mainly because she hates to cook.  She went on and on about how easy it was and let me borrow a book on homemade baby food.

After much thought, I decided to go for it.  I looked at the book and online.  I even entertained another, more radical option, baby-led weaning (radical for me), but decided to go this route to start.  Now I have the book I borrowed plus 2 more and a bookmark to a website with info.  From the research I have done, I have come to the conclusion that making Ginny's baby food will save us a lot of money (I love saving), plus it is healthier for her.  She will be eating fresh fruits and veggies to start.  Later I will add meats.  I will be get the chance to be creative as well once we start to do combinations.

Two weeks ago, I started making Ginny's food.  I try to buy organic where I can.  I can steam, boil, or roast most of the veggies and fruits.  Then I simply put them in the food processor and, presto, I'm done.  After the food is pureed, then I put them in ice cube trays to freeze. It doesn't take that long to do either.  The only thing slowing me down are ice cube trays.  I only have 2, and I bought those.  I think I need to buy some more so I can be more efficient.

Some of the food I've already made for Ginny: Zucchini, Carrots, Green beans, Apples, and Butternut Squash.

Ginny starts solids in a week.  We will start with rice cereal then start adding the veggies (first) then fruits.  I have already made zucchini, carrots, green beans, apples, and butternut squash.  Today I worked on pears and yellow squash.  Tomorrow I hope to make peas and broccoli.  I will also give her foods I personally hate.  Hopefully, by giving her homemade baby food with a lot of variety, she will be a lot less picky about foods than I am.  ::fingers crossed::

Napping--Day 2

Yesterday didn't go too awful in my attempts to get Ginny to nap in her crib.  Granted, they didn't go great either.  After I laid her down, she was fine....for 5 minutes.  Then she started to fuss and cry.  I went in to sooth her and then left.  She stayed quiet (and asleep) for 10 minutes.  Again, she fussed and cried.  Again I went in and soothed her then left.  The next go, she stayed asleep and quiet for 15 minutes. Repeat for me again. I like that each time she increased 5 minutes.  I then decided to take this new "free" time and clean our master bath.  While doing so, I heard Ginny starting to fuss, but ignored it (there was no crying so this made it easy).  I could hear her starting to entertain herself and was able to finish my task.  In total, she spent one hour in her crib with only about 40 minutes of that napping.  Not too bad for the first day.

That afternoon I decided I wouldn't lay in her crib for afternoon naps until we had established the morning nap routine a bit more.  My plan is to start adding the afternoon crib nap toward the end of the week.

Now it is day 2 of setting up this lovely nap routine.  I added a new component.  I set up my iPod in her room and have it playing classical music quietly in the background.  She has now been down for 8 minutes and while she fussed a bit in the first 2 minutes, there was no crying or need for me to go in there.  I laid her down while she was awake yet sleepy.  Part of me wants to peek in, but the other part is afraid that this will disturb her.  No matter what, though, today is already much improved over yesterday's attempts. That would make any mom happy, I believe.